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The Agenda in the Storm

(x = space)

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The Agenda in the Storm

(having gathered)

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New York was hit

Awfully bad

It’s moving north and east

The fires out west are also

Famously terrible

And there are storms

And floods and fires

Elsewhere

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It is bad in Kabul,

Too,

The President asking for

More planes from non-military

Sources

And we can’t compare

This to Saigon, because

The fighting isn’t over

There’s a force ready

To fight the Taliban

Will North America and Europe

Recognize this group

To send them aid,

If an irony of aid

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And there are other groups

In prisons and dealing

With worse persecution

(another irony)

On the outside

These groups are in Myanmar

And China

And northeastern Africa

And in North America,

Native Americans

And First Families

And do we want to keep the

Border nonporous to the south

Because we want to contain

Mexicans for being

Mexican?

And blacks and whites

Where are we now?

x

These are the ethnic

Fires and the flood of hate

And fear;

In the USA, we once liked

The melting pot

Though now it seems a crucible

To separate us and to test us

Then we might go back

To melting

In that first, patriotic pot

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There’s climate

And still too much unchecking

You know, there’s a town

In Ohio that found natural gas

In a parochial way

And burned it all,

Frankly, excessively

Until there was none left

I don’t want to blame them

For excitement

Or working out technologies

At large, we need to do that,

Too

x

But I suppose there’s a lesson

In there, somewhere

And we have so much to learn

And do

To stop the fires,

Contain the floods

Mine in every way

Our minerals well

Maintain both poles

Step in, step out

So there might be

Peace in western Asia

And elsewhere

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And then there’s hate

And fear behind the hate

That’s for our dealing,

Too,

To have a planet that we’re

Fond of and it shows

It breathes, it smells,

It tastes, it sounds, it feels,

It looks

Grand as canyons,

Vast as deserts,

Cold as frozen,

Hot as eruptions,

Living as oceans,

Deep as thought

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C L Couch

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The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill is alluded to, above.

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Photo by Kevin Grieve on Unsplash

Trafalgar Square, London, UK

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Three, One, Three Again

(x = space)

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sorry, long

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Three, One, Three Again

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Creator, savior, guide

Maybe I understand the trinity

Maybe not

They are lively

And immediate

They are at work all the time

And understand rest

They commend a sabbath

And the days on either side

They are all efficiency

And all love

We have access to them

And, as teachers and advisors

Not to mention

God,

They nudge us

All the time

x

2

What kind of commanders

Legions at their call

They give us time

And patience

Before anything like

A final battle

Victory assured

I mean in this moment

We wait and wait and wait

Or, worse, deny

While they withhold rejection

Until the moment

Past the moment

Before judgment

Should decide

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They give us time

Keeping everything at bay,

Which is love

All love

Splicing revelation

Tailoring salvation

For each one

Each encounter

How wondrously and thunderously

Special

What kind of God

What parts of God

Can do this

And then do it

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3

Hear, O Israel

And all other nations,

Catch them in the human heart

Live as one

Each one as all

Repair the ruin of the Earth

There is so much faith

And good work to do

x

They are mild

They are also Armageddon

What kind of love

What kind of God

Three then one

Then three again

They live in constant relationship

So should we

Within the parts

Of ourselves,

Each one

And then

Altogether

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More than one in one

We can have that, too:

Remember might

Remember love

Both mingled in each moment

Quicksilver

And slow water

Everything that moves

And tries to rest

They show us the way

To give us something every day

Then just after our last day

After work

And battling

And sabbathing

To lead us home

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C L Couch

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Maybe it’s not my tradition, but I mean to be respectful of the Shema.

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Temple of Edfu, Egypt

Photo by Jeremy Zero on Unsplash

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believe when things are bad

(x = space)

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believe when things are bad

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it’s a naïve message,

I suppose

I thought about it during

Bible study,

which was

about assurance

x

an assurance

that things will go bad

even as

a season entered,

x

but God is there

and we should be as well

(we should

show up)

x

believing is a practice

a practice of

a presence,

Brother Lawrence

might say

in church,

the pastor showed

a picture of

Where’s Waldo?

and I thought

we were

supposed to wonder

where God is

in that;

x

but I understand that

God is there,

all over

x

and the question is,

Where are we?

x

good agnostication

sharp skepticism

I hope

that we have more

x

along with

our petitions in the

practice

of the season

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c l couch

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Psalm 121, a psalm of assurance

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Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

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Rainy Water

Photo by sanjiv nayak on Unsplash x

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Doctrine by Tempest

(x = space)

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Doctrine by Tempest

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And should I turn

To the Spirit,

How shall she say

Or guide?

To love in all things,

Though that

Can be a mystery

Like faith

And should I ask for grace

Or is that bestowed

In quantities

Already

Measured out by God,

Dispensed by angels?

I don’t know,

I think grace might be wild,

Ready to fall itself

Into the crisis

Spreading all the elements

And changing time

For

Working things,

Which means perhaps

That prayer

Is unchained, too,

And to do so

Into the storm

In terror

And unformed bequest

Well, it counts

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C L Couch

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Hurricane Map

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Yemen

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Escape from Afghanistan

(x = space)

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Escape from Afghanistan

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I don’t know how it is

To crowd myself

Inside an airplane

I don’t like heights

I don’t like the

Closed-in feeling

x

I don’t know how it is

To climb upon the side

And hope that

The massive vehicle

Will stop

To let me and mine in

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But this is life

This is escape

This is relief

And so they pack

And so they climb

Something starts moving;

It is the hope

Of leaving

Where we are

To anywhere but here,

Which we think

In the moment

In the crisis

Must be better

x

I might surrender

All my fears

To try for something

That might

Take me through

The filtered sky

Of what has been

My home

Or simply

My assignment

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C L Couch

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My escape from Afghanistan on a US military plane: ‘It was total chaos’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2021/aug/19/my-escape-from-afghanistan-on-a-us-military-plane-it-was-total-chaos-video

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NO EXIT

Photo by Nathan McDine on Unsplash

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Deal-Making with the Lord

(x = space)

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Deal-Making with the Lord

(sigh, didn’t work for Moses)

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Lord,

The stomach feels

So tight

I’d like relief

Though

Really

At the source

x

All my troubles

I can’t escape

Them

Though I could

Escape a few

x

And is

Escape the answer?

Probably not

(worse the

luck)

I imagine there is

Something

By the way of

Resolution

x

But some things,

I think,

Can simply

Be made better

Call it grace or

Miracle

Or one side

Of a pledge

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Please, Lord,

Ease

The pain

Give me days

Without

The consequences

I’ll work

On the rest,

I promise

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C L Couch

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Photo by Ella de Kross on Unsplash

New York, NY, USA

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Encounter

(x = space)

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Encounter

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Is there a spiritual answer

To everything?

Well, yes

But we are flesh and blood as well;

And muscles, organs, veins,

And capillaries

Sometimes need appeased

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The body keeps the feelings;

The flesh owns

All the senses,

And that’s good

It’s natural,

If limited

The soul is in here somewhere

Incited by a spark of life

That no one seems to understand

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We seem to house everything

The world, the flesh, and the devil

As I’ve heard

The answers are in here,

I suppose,

Which means that the answers are

In you—maybe

We could share

That would be smart, I think,

And comforting

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C L Couch

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These young guys were chatting at a cafe, where they caught my eyes. They were a group of friends having coffee and dinner together and talking about movies, videogames, tech and stuff like that. I guess you could say that these are the stories of our younger years.

Photo by Ashkan Forouzani on Unsplash

Atrin Café, Ahvaz, Iran

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Loving Cup

(x = space)

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Loving Cup

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There is a couple

One has cancer

They bake cookies for

First-responders

Many, many cookies

For over a year

Notes of love accompany

But the real notes

Are in the discs of dough

With chocolate or

Peanut-butter chips

Or maybe raisins

Add staffs and they

Would be

Notes of love to make a song

Bless them

Bless you

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C L Couch

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This story was featured on the noon news today (17 August 2021), ABC-27, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (USA).

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Lovely Wall

Photo by mohammed alherz on Unsplash

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Monday after Sunday Prayer

(x = space)

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Monday after Sunday Prayer

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Lord,

What’s going on?

Where are you?

Where are we?

Are we lost,

Or it is that

So much seems lost

On us?

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Do we simply

Not get it?

We engine on

And sometimes there are wheels

Where do they take us?

Why should we make the trip?

x

Too many questions

We want some

Certainty,

Please

We want to know

We’re on the path to

Something good,

What we’re aiming toward

And heading toward

Is good

x

Good for prosperity

Good for wisdom

Good for relief

On our arrival

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How will get there?

Do angles light the way?

And yet

Some part of us must be

Agnostic

Must question

Doubt

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We have to assay

Whether it’s treasure

Or rust

Or rusty treasure

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To take

Simply admire

And walk on

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Into future

(into Tuesday)

To the next site

A challenge

The next prayer

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C L Couch

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Beware of these Streets

Photo by Andrew Gook on Unsplash

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